– Homeowner fights back tears after house of 20 years sells for life-changing sum<\/a><\/p>\nThe pair had booked 8344D State Highway 35, in Whanarua Bay, for a post-lockdown holiday, and while there, they learnt it was for sale.<\/p>\n
Kathy told OneRoof: \u201cWe decided after Covid we wanted to do something different and we came here and stayed for a weekend and the lady who owned it said it was up for sale. So, we went back to Gisborne and put our house on the market and thought if it sells it\u2019s meant to be, and that\u2019s what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
The retirees moved into the main architecturally-designed property, which they call the Glass House due to its floor-to-ceiling glass windows, and rented the cottage to holidaymakers.<\/p>\n
The Sheldrakes had been instrumental in running 150 Weet-Bix TRYathlon events and hosting several World Triathlons in New Zealand, so when they took over the Airbnb they also wanted to make sure guests had a good experience.<\/p>\n
![\"Terry](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2026424f64a62989c4379ac0394832ce.jpg\")
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The separate one-bedroom, one-bathroom cottage was ranked in the top 1% of Airbnb retreats worldwide. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Kathy added: \u201cOften I\u2019d do baking for them and be making muffins and banana cake and all those sorts of things. Bringing them over here for a glass of wine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Their efforts had also seen the cottage receive recognition as one of Airbnb worldwide Top-Ranked 1% Airbnb Retreats. \u201cIt\u2019s been very successful, and we\u2019ve had wonderful guests from all around the world. It\u2019s been fabulous … they love the spot, they love the privacy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The couple said it was an extremely special property in an area with its own microclimate and some of the country\u2019s best fishing. The two homes sit on a 9450sqm section, which has fruit trees and its own banana plantation.<\/p>\n
They would miss the birdsong, native bush, stunning views across the bay as well as the friendly community, which had stepped in to help and look after their dog when they were both hospitalised earlier in the year.<\/p>\n
Kathy said they would be sad to say goodbye, but they didn\u2019t really have a choice. \u201cWe can\u2019t stay here really with Terry\u2019s diagnosis. We need to be closer to medical facilities, so we are looking at around Whakatane sort of area to move to.\u201d<\/p>\n
They said the unique home, which has an RV of $980,000, could suit someone looking for a permanent residence, holiday home or even someone wanting to run both properties as holiday lets.<\/p>\n
– 8344D State Highway 35, in Whanarua Bay, in \u014cp\u014dtiki is for sale by negotiation<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"– Terminal pancreatic cancer has forced an Eastern Bay couple to sell their Whanarua Bay retreat. – After…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,1258,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-610517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-latest-news","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Terry](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/669817032a57f2822ad3655c22d0e303.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Terry](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/e487ed84062b567090b5eed96a1a7e34.jpg\")
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